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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Wfh kids holidays

80 replies

Bluevelvetcake2 · 03/10/2022 12:26

currently trying to work out our household budget for the coming years and as kids leave nursery and start school one potential expense will be holiday clubs. wondering whether we would need holiday clubs for all holiday weeks which we couldn’t cover with annual leave or if it would be ok to have them at home with us for a week in each holiday whilst we work from home. does anyone do this? thanks

OP posts:

FlounderingFruitcake · 03/10/2022 12:30

I think this had more to do with the nature of your job and flexibility of your employer than what other people may or may not do! If you have to be available at short notice, spend a lot of time on the phone, worked fixed hours etc. then it will be really difficult!

steppemum · 03/10/2022 12:31

the trouble you may have is that not all holiday clubs cover a working day.
Schools here tend to do a club from 10-2. No good if you are trying to work round it.

tunnocksreturns2019 · 03/10/2022 12:32

Yes that, and also what your DC are like. My eldest has ADHD and I can’t work at home when he’s around even though he’s 13 now 😬😅

Forestgate · 03/10/2022 12:32

What would your employer agree to?!

TheOtherBoleynGirls · 03/10/2022 12:33

We mix and match. I’m not using holiday club this October. DC10 is fine. For DC6 we’ve worked out it’s cheaper to buy him a bloody Lego set every day than pay for childcare! But I can flex my work a bit and they are good kids, and there’ll be some play dates in there, so we’ll muddle through this time. We do normally use childcare though.

pastaandpesto · 03/10/2022 12:33

I think your children are too young, sorry OP. We wfh and only stopped using holiday camps etc for the youngest omce he was in Y5.

purpleme12 · 03/10/2022 12:34

A holiday club that's part of a nursery will cover the whole day because they open the same hours as the nursery.

Don't forget this is also down to the personality of your children as well as what's mentioned above. Theoretically I could work from home and do if there's no choice ie no childcare but I would never choose this because she needs too much attention and doesn't occupy herself and can kick off even at 9

HunterHearstHelmsley · 03/10/2022 12:34

It depends on the employer.

I have my nephew with me a couple of days a week over the holidays and I still work. He's 5. I'm careful to not agree to have him on busy meeting days. My employer is fine with it. But the reason I have him is because my sisters employer is not fine with it!

purplecorkheart · 03/10/2022 12:36

A lot depends on the nature of your job tbh.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 03/10/2022 12:36

My neighbour did this and their child spent 5 days watching the tv. I honestly think camps are great and especially between the ages of 4-8, when they are so active.

one way round it could be to take half day annual leave, not nearly as bad.

TheMoops · 03/10/2022 12:36

I did it this year and I swore never again. I was exhausted and I felt like I was being really unfair to DS.

I'll probably need to do the odd day but i'm going to try and avoid it as much as I can.

properdoughnut · 03/10/2022 12:40

Does your employer have any rules regarding this?

properdoughnut · 03/10/2022 12:40

Could you take unpaid parental leave?

Normandy144 · 03/10/2022 12:41

It all depends on the nature of your job and your children. We both work full time and we both have flexibility and autonomy in how we work. That said mine are 6+9 so a bit easier to handle. In the holidays we do a mix of clubs and some down days, but both children are aware that we are working and they won't have our undivided attention. I wouldn't for example have them at home for a full week while I am working full time but a day or two here and there is fine. The advantage of WFH is that I never need to book them into clubs to cover the full working day - I can do a 9.30 start and 3.30 finish. I also mix it with play dates.

Snoopsnoggysnog · 03/10/2022 12:45

Agree with much of the above, and I would add that I would really avoid this with under 10s tbh. It’s not fair on you or them. It’s ok on the odd day but certainly not for a week at a time and as an employer I would expect my employee to have proper child care in place during holidays.

sheepdogdelight · 03/10/2022 12:45

I don't think you should plan to do this until your DC are at least 7 or 8 and can be trusted to reliably amuse themselves. Or, put another way, why are you paying for nursery if it was that easy?

Also, remember that even if they can reliably amuse themselves they may get bored over a full day.

You can look at things like child swaps (you look after someone else's child one day, so they look after yours another) and compressing hours - I used to work 5 days over 3 in some school holidays to reduce the holiday care needed.

YukoandHiro · 03/10/2022 12:46

I prefer to book holiday clubs if I'm not on annual leave but it's ££££.
Im self employed but can't get a lot done with them around.

NoSquirrels · 03/10/2022 12:48

I could not reliably WFH around the children until the youngest was upper primary school age e.g. 9.

We managed with childcare swaps, paid holiday camps, grandparents & relations, judicious use of annual leave and a fucking big headache scheduling it every year.

Invisimamma · 03/10/2022 12:52

It's not fair on your children or your employer. A couple of hours here and there is fine but full days for weeks is not sustainable and you will need proper childcare.

Even if you can go with the cheaper council run holiday clubs that are 10-3 and then DC can come home and watch TV for a couple of hours after.

If you're working all day and they're home it's a pretty shit holiday for them. From experience it just doesn't work with children under age 10/11.

deplorabelle · 03/10/2022 12:59

A colleague does this with her children and to be honest it's fucking annoying having to carry her for six weeks of doing a crap job at odd hours while also wanting to take time off in the holidays to spend with my own children. Erratic attendance at meetings and then we have to chat to her kids on teams calls cos they've wandered in. Or hearing them screaming in the background. I don't think it's fair on the children or colleagues who cover.

If all kids are over about 7 and relatively easy going (and get on well) you can get away with doing half days but it's a compromise and very knackering. I would still plan to use holiday club with wfh to cover the extra hours when holiday club doesn't run

Goldbar · 03/10/2022 13:08

I did a lot of wfh over the summer with my 4yo. What worked best was booking them into a half day sports camp (we had a camp just round the corner from us but it would only take under-5s for one session a day), and then unlimited screen time for the rest of the day. They also did a few full days at theatre club and forest school (until 3.30pm).

I'm not sure I would have wanted to be wfh without any childcare as it would essentially have involved 8 hours a day in front of a screen for my DC and I would have been constantly interrupted. My DC doesn't do well if they don't get enough exercise either so we would have had to squeeze in a playground trip or walk somewhere. I think both of us would have been fed up pretty quickly. As it was, DC was getting 3-4 hours of TV and tablet time a day so I could do calls and meetings, which is much more than I'd usually allow.

Rainallnight · 03/10/2022 13:13

I don’t think it really works.

Whitewolf2 · 03/10/2022 13:15

From experience during covid it is very difficult to work and concentrate fully whilst also having young DC at home. Nobody wins and you end up burnt out or feeling lots of guilt for doing 2 jobs poorly. If under 8-9 years old id look around at all the clubs available, see which do group offers etc (some of ours were 5 days for price of 4 if whole week is booked for example).

YellowTreeHouse · 03/10/2022 13:17

You cannot work from home and look after your children too. They are too young, it wouldn’t be fair to them and you wouldn’t be putting 100% into your work so they wouldn’t allow it either.

CreepyDibillo · 03/10/2022 13:46

Honestly, not at that age, until they get a bit older. Mine and are 8 and 5 and it's just about manageable for the odd day - not more than once a week at the absolute most. It's definitely much harder in the winter as they can't go in the garden to let off steam.
I don't like WFH when they're at home because they're bored and that's when they start to play up. I also feel incredibly guilty that they're bored and neglected.
My employer is OK with it on the odd occasion in the holidays, as long as my output doesn't drop. We do have a very flexible working model though. I can avoid doing my 2 days a week in the office during the holidays if I need to.
Whether you can make it a success when they're a bit older will depend on the children's temperaments and your employer's WFH policy.

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